Lawmaker seeks probe on DBP loans

MANILA, Philippines - Rep. Teodorico Haresco of the party-list group Ang Kasangga wants the House of Representatives to look into loans the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) has granted private companies.  

Haresco filed Resolution 1646 proposing the inquiry after receiving complaints that DBP has extended multi-billion loans to private corporations.

He noted recent news reports about a multi-billion loan supposedly extended to a private corporation to partly fund its capital expenditure programs for 2011 and 2012.

There is also the controversial P600-million loan given to Marcos regime Trade Minister Roberto Ongpin who used the money to buy a block of shares in a mining company.

Ongpin later unloaded the shares for a huge profit. When he received the loan, he and the president of DBP were members of the mining company’s board of directors.

The huge loan was reportedly extended to an undercapitalized Ongpin company.

The former martial law trade minister and former DBP officials are now facing charges in connection with the loan before the Department of Justice.

In giving loans to big corporations and wealthy businessmen, Haresco said the DBP violates its principal mandate of providing credit to small and medium-scale businesses.

He said the focal points of DBP’s development thrusts are on five priority areas namely, social services, environment, infrastructure and logistics, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), and industrial lending.

“There is a need to restructure government financial institutions, particularly the DBP, to achieve a more efficient and effective use of available resources so that its assets will serve as guarantee fund for micro-entrepreneurs, farmers, fisher folks, and others to avoid unfair competition with the private sector,” he said.